NYC LIBRARIES AWAIT FIXES FOR FOUR YEARS ON AVERAGE, REPORT FINDS

The Weeksville Heritage Center is one of the 144 projects included in the report. CUF found that the center cost $1,398 per square foot. (Credit: NYC Department of Design and Construction)

April 17, 2017

CURBED NEW YORK — April 10, 2017 — New York City’s process of managing capital construction projects for cultural institutions and libraries is marred by bureaucratic setbacks, a new report by the Center for an Urban Future finds. Under the leadership of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, costs run high and timelines long for new construction, particularly renovations of the city’s library and cultural projects, reports the nonpartisan public policy think tank. The delays mean communities go longer without the institutions that they depend on for access to information and cultural programming.

The report examines projects completed by the DDC from 2010 to 2014—this excludes high-profile projects like Steven Holl’s Hunters Point South Library, which is expected to be complete this year—and finds that the median capital project takes longer than 1,550 days, or four years, to complete. Per the report, the duration is “shocking” given that most projects were of the renovation variety, involving the replacement or transformation of single components like mechanical equipment or roofs. Of course new construction toiled on longer, taking about 2,467 days, or seven years, to complete.

With these extended timelines come egregious costs. The report found that the construction of new library and cultural buildings costs about twice as much per square foot as it does to build a spec office tower in NYC. The median price per square foot spent by the DDC on these new projects—including the more costly Kingsbridge Library ($1,117) and Weeksville Heritage Center ($1,398)—is $930, compared to the roughly $425 to $500 per square foot the New York Building Congress says developers spent on speculative office buildings in 2016. This cost also exceeds how much libraries and institutions pay when they self-manage construction projects.

The reasons for these exorbitant costs and delayed timelines are myriad, but are largely due to inefficient systems between DDC and the city’s Office of Management and Budget, the two agencies most responsible for these projects. The report pinpoints seven reasons for these setbacks: drawn-out approvals processes; a roughly year-long waiting period for a project to get the go-ahead to proceed; a lack of accountability to deliver a cost-effective product on an aggressive timeline; ineffective communication among involved agencies; frequent changes in scope and funding; a lack of experience among nonprofit clients; and a botched contracting process. The report also goes on to make recommendations of how to fix these problems.

One particularly interesting finding of the report is that the agency’s more architecturally ambitious projects don’t disproportionately affect these findings. According to the report, there’s “no evidence that these investments in quality design have contributed to long delays and cost overruns.” In fact, the DDC’s Design in Excellence program has simplified its application process for these projects to court bigger talent.

The report analyzes 144 projects undertaken during the Bloomberg administration. During the De Blasio administration and under the current management of Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora, the agency has reduced approval durations by 22 percent.

For the DDC’s part, they say the report doesn’t get at the whole picture. A spokesman for the DDC told theWall Street Journal that the report “fails to recognize the rigorous protections that safeguard taxpayer dollars.”

Program Areas

Also in the News

Julie Sandorf, President of the Revson Foundation, writes in Crain's New York on the critical need to protect NYC public libraries' funding, and the important role our libraries will play in helping all New Yorkers participate in the 2020 Census.

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW — April 29, 2019 — Last September, during a heavy downpour in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, Luis Sánchez Almonte was buried alive. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Sánchez Almonte, who was 47, had been living in northern…

Commissioned by the BPL, SITU created a kit-of-parts that realigns century-old library spaces with 21st-century programming. Made up of adjustable infrastructure and furniture systems, the system creates flexible spaces to support the huge range of programs hosted by each branch. Across BPL’s 59 libraries, these spaces host close to 70,000 programs annually. Modular and scalable by design, the system is a pathway to revitalize community spaces in neighborhoods across Brooklyn.

BLOOMBERG — April 25, 2019 — The City, a website covering local news in America’s biggest metropolis, debuted this month with a bank account some of its nonprofit peers could only dream of. Backed by almost $10 million from philanthropies and individuals,…

THE SEATTLE TIMES — November 19, 2018 — In a story most Muslims believe authentic, the Prophet Muhammad stands up as a Jewish funeral procession goes by. His companions wonder why he shows such respect. “It is only a Jew,” they…

THE NEW YORK TIMES — November 20, 2018 — Tuesday is the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. It’s the 12th of Rabi al-Awwal, the day most Muslims believe he came into the world some 1,400 years ago. I first met Muhammad in August…

A major new nonprofit digital news organization focused on New York City, called THE CITY (@TheCityNY), is about to begin staffing up with top New York City journalists, and it will launch later this year with the mission of adding…

The Revson Foundation is proud to support the publication of Eric Klinenberg's new book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life.

URBAN OMNIBUS — September 7, 2018 — Where do you go to get help? A branch library system is an ideal physical infrastructure of aid: in New York City, 209 branches are dispersed throughout the city, yet central to neighborhoods’ identities; they…

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — July 22, 2018 — It’s hard to believe nobody thought of it sooner: A New York City library card can now get you into 33 museums free. The Brooklyn, New York and Queens libraries launched Culture Pass,…